I do not suggest that President Obama has thus far managed to change the United States into the sort of place where El Presidente Chávez would feel right at home. Nor do I suggest that President Obama clearly views El Presidente as a suitable role model. I do suggest that in the few months he has been in office, President Obama may have shown at least the beginnings of a trend in that direction, and that in light of the present situation in Venezuela, his protestations that Democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech and freedom of religion are universal principles that other countries can (and perhaps should) embrace and affirm as part of their national identity, may ring a bit hollow. Venezuela conspicuously lacks the rule of law and freedom of speech; the institutions of democracy have been almost totally destroyed, and the situation there continues to deteriorate. By the time that these "universal principles" have been noticeably diminished in the United States, it will be too late to do much about it.
I don't consider El Presidente Chávez a fictitious bogeyman, to be ignored as presaging a possible future for the United States; I very much hope that that there is no such problem. Still, as a nation, we spend a lot of time agonizing over matters as to which we are impotent and as to which we have no say. Prudence suggests that we look to the past and to the present, both in the United States and elsewhere — including Venezuela, in attempting to augur the future. As to such matters, we still have at least a little to say; it should be heard.
Article comments
1 - Joanne Huspek
Interesting article and brings up too many points to stuff into a comment box. However, I will say this:
1. Such huge reversals such as what happened in Venezuela (and elsewhere) started with small chips that snowballed into a larger movement.
2. The dissenters should speak up more loudly. Because...
3. The majority of people are misinformed, uninformed and/or apathetic.
I've spent six weeks ignoring my world and now that I've emerged, all I can say is scary.
These are scary times.
2 - Doug Hunter
I'm not sure what was behind dropping the charges against the black panthers offshoot that is classified as a hate group by the SPLC and ADL. They have them on tape holding a weapon, they have them on tape telling white people 'you are about to be ruled by a black man', and they have witness statements from even civil rights lawyers that say they heard them call white people crackers in the midst of the intimidation.
If this were KKK in uniform with weapons calling people niggers there'd be hell to pay. Unfortunately, leftist propaganda has built republicans and whites up to be so evil that any action against them is justified. That's how you lose freedoms.
3 - Dan(Miller)
Joanne,
When Chávez was first elected, I kinda maybe thought he might possibly do some good for the country, particularly by diminishing the then endemic corruption. He did not do that, and corruption is, if possible, much worse now than it was in 1999. So is just about everything else in Venezuela.
Recently, Panama had her presidential elections, with two major candidates. One (from the party of the current President, who seemed a pretty good guy to me) was from the "left wing" of her party; she was pretty high on both Chávez and Castro, and had also been good buddies with Manuel Noriega when he was in power. She had me worried. Fortunately, she lost overwhelmingly to the other major candidate, who collected more than sixty percent of the vote; just over seventy percent of those eligible to do so voted. The winning candidate is a very successful businessman, and many of those who supported his candidacy felt that his election would be good for the economy. I hope, and think, that he will do quite well. The best news for me is that, at least in Panama, for now, we don't have to worry too much about many of the things going on in countries under the influence of el Presidente Chávez.
Dan(Miller)
4 - Dan(Miller)
Here is an interesting take, from a Venezuelan perspective, on the elections in Iran.
Dan(Miller)
5 - Dan(Miller)
I wonder whether Venezuela has inspectors general and, if so, how she deals with them. This might provide some helpful guidance.
Dan(Miller)